The subject couldn’t be much humbler: a wicker basket heaped with plums and placed on a stone ledge amid a scattering of walnuts, cherries, and currants. In an era when French painting was known for its grandeur and decorative embellishments, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin’s still lifes and genre scenes were renowned for their simplicity and directness.
Title: Basket of Plums
Creator: Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin
Date Created: 1765
Location: France
Physical Dimensions: 12 3/4 x 16 1/2 in. (32.4 x 41.9 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Provenance: Emil Leroux, Paris; Georges Hoardt, New York, 1939; Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1939; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1971.
Type: Painting
Medium: Oil on canvas